The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1887-03-19

to gather an impression OF santa re.
Sitting there, looking at the Governor
old palace on the north and the row
of smart Jew shops on the south,
at the low and half-crumbling mud
walls and houses, and the big new
brick and wooden buildings cropping
out here and there, and overlapping
every thing, one sees an effective Pict-
ure of the clashing of the new and the
old. 1t is the new that suffers most by
the contrast. The long, low adobes,
with their lines of absolute simplicity,
and their soft yellow-gray color, seem
far more dignifed than the modern
high, square, bay-windowed. turreted.
jig-saw finished wooden building, or
even the substantial brick one, with
copings and facings of different colors.
Contrasts no less marked will be seen
in the passers-by in the streets. The
SUGGESTIONS are almost fantastic; time
seems playing at phantasmagoria while
one watches them.
Close on the heels of two dapper
young Americans in buggy, with sur
veying instruments and charts in their
hands, comes a Mexican cart, creep
ing along, drawn by oxen; its wheels
are circles of solid wood, sections Of
tree-trunks, roughly hewn, with an ir-
regularly shaped hole in the center, in
which creaks the rough-hewn axle. The
driver is in rags and dirty. but he wears
fine broad-brimmed sombrero. with
roll of twisted silver wire and straw
around the crown; and as he goes he
sings lifting song to himself. or whis-
ties softly, or takes nap in his cart,
and he would not change places with
the handwriting young surveyors if he
could.
Sauntering through the Plaza, and
looking curiously, with furtive glances,
at strangers, come his sweetheart and
her friend. They wear trailing cotton
gowns, sweeping a foot behind them,
and begrimed halfway up the skirt
with the impalpable, ineradicable Santa
Fe dust; they would feel Inundated to
lift them, and to wear them short would
be disgrace. To be unconscious OF
dirt, superior to it, is dignity. On their
heads they wear gay shawls, black with
gaudy flowers, or white striped like a
rainbow. With one hand they hold
the shawl-folds firm over their mouths,
their soft, but passionate black eyes
cleaning out of the triangular opening
above, as from the bars of prison.
window. They are used to only half
seeing; for the few windows they have
in their houses are without glass, and
shut off from the street by jaillike graf
ings of close-set wooden rails.
Behind them comes, with brisk step
and erect carriage, an American
woman, the wife or sister, perhaps, Of
some officer of the fort garrison. She
is dressed in the last Paris style; moth
ing escapes her eyes; as she passes the
sauntering Mexican damsels she glances
disdainfully at their dusty trains; and
they in turn speak scornfully to each
other of her needless uncovering of
her ankles. In a few moments, to
complete the human panorama, there
60 stalking along outside the plaza
paling group of Pueblo Indians, bare
headed. wrapped in scarlet blankets.
The dignity of their bearing and the
grace of their drapery put both Mexi-
can and American to shame. Nothing
can be finer. Roman senators in togas
never folded their arms better, or stood
straighter. They make for the shops.
They have walked all the way in from
their village, twelve miles or more.
having made little money by selling
some of their pottery. They have come
in to spend the last dollar Of it.
The two most interesting ruins in
Santa Fe are the San Miguel Church
and an old building opposith it, called
the Indian House. This is undoubtedly
the Oldest house in America. 1t is a
rough, two-story adobe, with low, mar
row door, and with windows like port
holes. The logs that hold up the dirt
roof show no signs of decay, and the
building is yet used as tenement
house. The church is also of adobe
but built on foundation Of small
stones laid in mortar, which il
the reason of its wonderful pres
ervation. It was first built in
1640, was partly destroyed by
the Indians in their revolt in 1880, ant
built up again in 1710. An inscription
roughly carved on one Of the beams o
the gallery, says that this was done b!
the Marquis de la Penuela, through hi
agent, Don Augustin Flores Vergara
The interior of the church is still il
tolerable repair, and service is held il
, it. Adjoining it is the house of tn
Christian Brothers, an order of tn
Catholic Church. This building is ais
. Of adobe, but 30 firmly built and skill
: fullv treated that il has the annearanc